In pieces
by scare.crow.tilik
Summary: YYHIY crossover Kagome has retuned to her own time with the entire jewel, so why is she still finding shards everywhere? Meanwhile Yusuke and the gang are still busy protecting the human world from demons until Koenma is able to hire new spirit detectives
1. THE MIGHTY DISCLAMER PAGE!

THE MIGHTY DISCLAMER PAGE!

Ok well I'm not going to write a disclaimer at the top of every chapter so here's my disclaimer page of disclameredniss. I don't own Inuyasha or Yuyu Hakusho, now that we are on the subject I don't really own much of anything. Of course this is a fan fiction site so we are all aware of this, however I am compelled to follow tradition and write a disclaimer none the less.

This is my first fan fiction so please go easy on me if it doesn't end up making complete sense. I have a vague idea where this story is going but feel free to give me story suggestions or pairings that you would like to see. Ummmmm….. running out of things to say, read and enjoy!


	2. Chasing Shadows

Chapter 1: Chasing Shadows

'Why the hell are we always stuck blindly running around big empty buildings like this? It's like looking for a needle in a fucking hay stack.' A young man was thinking to himself… in a manner of speaking. He was not in the least surprised when he actually got an answer.

'Quit complaining, you have been whining about not getting any action ever since the barrier came down. Now we get a chance for a fight and you still manage to find something to bitch about.' The voice was smooth and dripping with arrogance, and it was coming from inside the young fighters head.

The young man rolled his emerald green eyes in annoyance. 'I'm not bitching about anything Youko, I'm just wondering why I can't sense any demonic aura other than our own.'

'Ether Koenma got board and decided to send us off on a wild goose chase for his own sick amusement or that horribly, disastrously, monstrously powerful shadow demon he was going on about was a piece of shit and Yusuke already killed it.' Youko drawled out with a yawn. 'I'm thinking the latter of the two scenarios myself.'

The teen just nodded absently with out giving a reply.

'Oh come on Kurama! there will be plenty more chances for you to get some exercise, peace isn't as easy as they try to make it sound. You're not out of a job yet.'

'You make me sound like some kind of war monger Youko.' Kurama muttered.

'Peace is boring.' Youko countered.

Kurama just snorted and shook his head, wondering how he had managed to put up with the annoying fox for so long.

They were wandering around in a half built condominium near where Yusuke lived. It was six floors high, with about fifty rooms per floor. None of the doors were locked; therefore this shadow demon could be hiding in any room. Yusuke had agreed to start on the bottom floor and go up while Kurama was to start on the top and go down. The idea was to trap the thing somewhere in the middle. Yusuke of course, wasted at least five minutes complaining about the elevators not working. As much as he kept complaining about having to wander around aimlessly, Kurama didn't actually mind the place that much. He liked the fact that it smelled like saw dust, and paint, and it also had that new carpet smell to it. Kurama supposed it was a human thing, to enjoy that new house smell. Youko didn't like it much.

Kurama was beginning to appreciate how much easier jobs like these were back when the whole group was together. Hiei could have found the thing in record time using either his jagon eye or his demonic speed, but right now he was pretty busy patrolling the borders of Makai for humans. It was only a temporary thing, but he seemed to be enjoying his new job. He came back every now and then to help out when things got out of hand, and to check on his sister, Yukina, but he was not around nearly as much as he used to be. Kuwabara had been attacking his homework with a vigor comparable only to his enthusiasm in a fight. It was difficult to deter him from his studies unless there was certain to be a really good fight, and he sure as hell was not going to be getting up at two thirty in the morning on a school day to chase a weak shadow demon through a gigantic maze of a building. That meant that unless the world was coming to an end, (and that had been happening less and less frequently lately) it was mostly up to Yusuke and Kurama to handle the few demons causing trouble and breaking demon worlds new law, at least until Koenma managed to find himself a new team of spirit detectives to replace Yusuke and the gang.

'Stop lying to yourself, you miss the good old days and you know it!' Youko growled in annoyance.

'Maybe, but I would never take it back. There is finally peace between the three worlds! (Mostly) isn't this what we were fighting for in the first place?' Kurama snapped

'It will never last. There's been war since the beginning of time. Things will pick up again, but it won't likely be till long after your dead.' Youko said, in a tone reminiscent of a parent chiding a child.

'And by then Yusuke will be ready to take his place as Raizens heir.' Kurama murmured thoughtfully.

'Or to try anyway.' Youko said with a snort of disdain. 'Things aren't quite that simple in demon world. There will always be challengers for that kind of power.'

'Like you?' Kurama asked with a knowing smile.

'If I'm still around? Hell yes! I got that kid beat by over five hundred years; I don't care if he is the descendent of a demon lord. I'll show that cocky little brat why I am the greatest thief who ever lived!' Kurama laughed out loud at Youko's haughty tone till tears were forming in his eyes. He had to stop and catch his breath before he could respond; glad that no one was around to see him laughing at nothing because they would surely think he was insane.

'Youko, how _do_ you live with that massive ego of yours?' Kurama asked once he had calmed down enough to think properly.

'If I had my own body you wouldn't have the guts to say that to my face.' Youko pouted.

Kurama just shrugged and flashed a devious smile, his emerald eyes sparkling with amusement.

Youko was about to say something more about how he was vastly superior to his human counterpart but he was cut short when a small grey creature about the size of a medium sized dog darted out of a room a few feet from where they were arguing and raced down the hall at top speed. It would dive into the darkest shadows in corners and under doorways, and then reappear a split second later yards away in another patch of gloom. Kurama took off after it running as fast as he could, muttering curses under his breath.

'Well there's our shadow demon.' Youko cried cheerfully.

'How the hell am I supposed to catch it?' Kurama demanded.

'You corner it in a well lit room of course!' Youko said in a tone that clearly stated that Kurama should already know how to capture the pathetic creature.

'Where the hell am I going to find a well lit room in a half built condo at two o'clock in the morning?'

'Actually its three o'clock now.' Youko stated, preferring to ignore the more pressing question.

'I wish Hiei was here.' Kurama muttered as the shadow demon rounded another corner, making weird screeching noises that were beginning to hurt his Kurama's sensitive ears. The thing resembled some sort of freakish boar, it's skin was a soft blue gray like the color a corpse turns after its been left for too long in water. It was completely hairless, and it had hooves that were too big for the rest of its body. It was so awkward it was a miracle it could run so damn fast. The thing was an oddity of nature.

After several minutes of running an irritated Kurama in circles the demon seemed to change its mind and headed for the stairs.

'Yes! Now we can get Yusuke to help us corner it!' Kurama cried.

'Or not…' Youko sighed, finally bored with watching Kurama chase the shadow demon in circles. The futility of his effort was amusing for a while but now it was just annoying. The shadow demon went down one flight of steps as fast as its little legs would go. It paused for a second, eyeing the door to the fourth floor before charging it down with an indifferent grunt. It didn't even stop to catch it bearings before continuing its mad dash down the hall, Kurama fast on its tail.

'It almost seems like it knows where it's going.' Kurama said, more to himself than to Youko.

'I doubt this stupid creature has any method to its madness but keep your guard up none the less.' Youko said with a mental shrug.

Kurama nodded and watched the creature carefully. It ran them in circles a few more times before changing direction and finally darting into one of the rooms on their left. Kurama uttered a victory noise; finally he had cornered the damn thing. The only thing left to do now was to catch it. Not an easy feat in a pitch black two bedroom condo, but at least he wasn't running in circles anymore. He snuck into the room, stealthy as a fox, and closed the door behind him so the creature couldn't escape.

'Did you not just see him bust through a door a few minutes ago?' Youko said with an exasperated snort.

'There's no point in leaving an easy escape route. At least I'll hear him if he busts down the door.' Kurama snapped defensively.

There was a flare of powerful demonic energy and the two were instantly alert and searching for the source.

'It's coming from somewhere in here.' Youko commented.

'I told you that thing knew where it was going.' Kurama muttered as he drew a rose from out of his hair and transformed it into his rose whip with a casual flick of his wrist. 'You think this is some sort of trap?' He asked.

'Probably.' Yuko said with a mental shrug

'Well lets go beat the hell out of this bastard for making us run around in circles at three in the morning on a school day.'

'You have been around Yusuke for way too long Kurama.'

'I know. So have you.'

Youko was not quite sure how to respond to that so he just kept silent. Kurama focused once again on the aura, analyzing it critically.

'This must be the s class shadow demon Koenma was talking about.' Kurama said, more to break the silence than anything else.

'Well, what are you waiting for? An invitation?' Youko drawled.

Kurama rolled his eyes and headed for the room where the shadow demon was waiting for them. There were no windows in the room, leaving it pitch black. This was shadow demon territory anyone could see it. Kurama's night vision was ten times better than that of any ordinary human, and he could make out a woman sitting on top of a large palette of tiles, probably the ones that were going to be used for either the kitchen or bathroom floors. It was difficult to make out her features in the dark, but she had short black hair, dark eyes, gray blue skin, and she was wearing form fitting black clothes. Sitting at her feet was the d class demon that they had been chasing previously.

"Youko Kurama, you have fallen right into my trap." She said flatly.

'What? No diabolical laughter?' Kurama mentally muttered

'That's a first.' Youko agreed.

The woman's eyes narrowed; irritated that Kurama was not paying any attention to her, instead he was staring off into space, smiling at some private joke. She had spent all that time coming up with the perfect trap, and he wasn't even taking her seriously. She jumped off the palette of tile and gathered her energy around her, taking in the surrounding blackness until it was impossible to see anything. Kurama readied his whip but discovered he was only holding an ordinary rose. He uttered a frustrated growl and poured his energy into it to make it transform, gasping in shock when the flower remained in its harmless form.

'She's blocking our aura some how.' Youko growled.

'I noticed! How the hell am I supposed to stop her?' Kurama snapped.

The woman giggled softly from somewhere in the blackness, and Kurama tossed the rose aside and turned to face her… or where he estimated her voice was coming from. He closed his eyes and pictured the room in his mind, trying to calculate where the large palate was, and where there were a few stray tiles on the floor he might trip over. Once he decided he know where everything was he lunged at the voice with all his speed. An agonizing pain overwhelmed him before he got very far, and he fell to his knees with a strangled cry. The giggle turned into all out laughter that rang in his skull and filled the blackness. Kurama felt as if he were being consumed slowly by fire. The feeling pushed inward until he could feel it in his gut, like a thousand red hot knives. He tried to scream, but he couldn't breath. He vaguely registered Youko yelling at him to get up but he knew it would be futile to try.

Kurama could feel the woman standing over him, but he didn't bother trying to move. Another wave of pain shot through him and this time he was coughing up blood. She put her hand on his shoulder and he felt a wave of her energy rip through him, and then it started. His energy started to divide in half, and then it started pulling in opposite directions. It felt like his soul was being ripped in half, his body being ripped in half along with it. Youko's cries were no longer making any sense. The pain wasn't allowing the ancient fox to think clearly. It was maddening. Kurama made a choking gasp at a sudden realization. Youko wasn't supposed to feel the pain that was being inflicted on Kurama's body. That could only mean that that woman was trying to rip them apart by force. As a result they would both surely die.

Kurama uttered an animalistic growl and tried to stand, but the woman merely laughed and delivered a hard kick to his solarplex, sending him crashing back to the ground. Kurama could feel the tug of war Youko's aura was having with his own, and he wondered how long it would be till he was nothing but a bloody mess. The damage this would do to his soul would be permanent, meaning him and Youko might be in for a fate much worse than death: non-existence. The woman poured more of her energy in between Youko and Kurama's auras and they began pulling even harder away from each other. Kurama screamed as loud as he could, and his scream was echoed in his head by Youko's. The pain was becoming too much and Kurama could feel himself slipping into unconsciousness. The last thing he heard before he was completely gone was the sound of Yusuke's angry voice.


	3. Locking the door to the past

Chapter 2: locking the door to the past

Kagome sat by herself on the steps of the well house sobbing relentlessly into her hands. It had been three months since she had completed the shikon jewel with the help of all her friends from the feudal era. Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Kirara, and Inuyasha. She missed them. She had tried to get through the well dozens of times since she returned, but it was no use. It looked like she would never get a chance to see her friends again and she didn't even get a chance to say good bye.

It didn't make any sense! She had the shikon no tama so why wouldn't the well let her back into the feudal era? They had finally completed the shikon jewel. After all this time, after two years of constant fighting they had found every last shard. It was time to make their wish, and nobody could be sure what would happen so Kagome insisted on going home to see her family first, and for the first time in the three years she had known him Inuyasha hadn't protested. Kagome had spent a week with her family knowing that after they made their wish the jewel might disappear and she might be unable get home. She was prepared for that possibility, however she was not prepared for the fact that she would never get back to the feudal era. That was her true home. Where ever Inuyasha and the others were was where she belonged and Kagome knew it.

It looked like a life in the feudal era was impossible. It was time to leave her old life behind and move on. Kagome curled her fingers around the shikon no tama from where it hung on a cord around her neck. It pulsed softly in response to her touch. The feel of its power filled her with comforting warmth as its energy coursed gently through her veins.

'Quite the souvenir' Kagome mused grimly.

It looked like she was stuck with the damn thing. She would have to protect it the same way Kikyou did before she died the first time. Kagome figured she was getting off easy as the guardian of the shikon no tama; it wasn't as if her time was crawling with demons. So far she had only run into some incredibly weak demons and a few angry ghosts.

With one last longing glance at the old well Kagome left the past behind and said her final good byes to her old life, after all she still had her future to contend with. Kagome shut the door to the well house with silent tears running freely down her cheeks. She took the pad lock that she had gotten from the hard ware store and for the first time in her life she locked the door to the past. She knew that if she didn't put a lock on the door she would be jumping down that well every day for the rest of her life. She refused to put herself through that kind of grief. It was time to let go.

Kagome took a deep breath and forced herself to stop crying. Once she got her tears under control she turned and walked back toward the house, vowing not to cry as she passed the goshinboku tree. The tears filling her eyes betrayed her as she was instantly reminded of the first time she saw Inuyasha pinned to its braud trunk, with Kikyous arrow buried deep in his heart. She remembered every time she had seen him perched lazily amongst the goshinbokus branches, his silver hair and bright red hakima easy to spot amongst the soft green leaves. Three hundred years and the only things still standing were the well and the goshinboku. Everyone was gone now and Kagome was all-alone.

Kagome couldn't hold back the tears any longer. She changed direction and headed for the shrine steps, running as fast as she could. She flew down the steps taking them two at a time and dashing past her startled mother.

"Kagome where are you going?" her mother called

"I'm going out, I'll be back later." Kagome yelled back over her shoulder without stopping. She didn't want her mother to know she was crying.

She dashed down the main street as fast as she could, barely avoiding a cyclist who was heading in the opposite direction. She ran past countless houses, zigzagging down random streets, not really knowing or caring where she was going. She plowed past a crowd of girls from her high school, barely noticing when a girl yelled a few choice curses at her. She darted past convenience stores, gas stations, but she was half blind to the modern world as she lost her self in her memories of the past. She imagined herself surrounded by towering oak trees and thick ferns, grass taking the place of this ocean of asphalt. The pure, untainted air of the past. She pictured Inuyasha running swiftly at her side. She ran until her lungs burned and she was too tired to cry. Kagome was not sure how long she had been running but the sun was beginning to set, painting the sky warm shades of pink and orange.

Kagome finally stopped and took in her surroundings. She was standing by the big fountain outside the mall, a few miles from the shrine. She had run farther in the feudal era on several occasions but today she was exhausted, physically and emotionally. She tossed a ten-yen piece into the water and made a silent wish before taking a seat on the edge of the fountain. She was sitting by herself trying to catch her breath when she heard an all too familiar voice.

"Hi Kagome chan!"

"Hello Hojo kun." Kagome replied weakly.

"Are you feeling all right Kagome? You look a little faint." Hojo asked as he took a seat next to Kagome on the fountain and gently put his hand to her forehead.

"I'm fine Hojo kun, I just decided to go out for a jog." She assured him with her most perfect fake smile.

"Oh that's good, you need lots of exercise to keep you healthy."

"Yeah, I guess so."

There was a long silence as Kagome stared longingly at the sky. She had sat under similar sunsets with Inuyasha and the others. It was strange how after a few near death experiences in the feudal era she had learned to appreciate the small things. She always basked in the colors of the evening sky because she knew Naraku could always get the better of them, and that sunset could be the last one she ever saw. Every moment on this earth was precious to her and she learned to stop seeing herself as a part of life and instead started seeing life as a part of her. But in the past she always had so many battles to fight, she had the jewel to complete, Naraku had to be defeated, she had her friends to fight for. Life was hard, but she had so much to live for. With no more battles to be won what did she have to live for now? All her friends were long gone by now, along the vast majority of the demon population.

After a while Hojo finally spoke.

"You seem kinda down about something Kagome chan, you wanna talk about it?"

"Not really, but thanks for asking Hojo kun." Kagome replied with a weak smile. She wasn't quite sure how exactly she could explain her problem to Hojo without mentioning demons, magic wells, and an immensely powerful marble that she was apparently destined to defend from evil.

Hojo gave her an understanding smile and nodded.

"If you don't want to talk than I wont bother you about it, but you could go see a movie with me. Maybe it would get your mind off of whatever's bothering you."

Kagome opened her mouth, prepared to turn him down but she changed her mind before she could say any thing.

"If you don't want too I'll understand." Hojo added

"No Hojo kun I'd love too." Kagome said quickly when she saw the look of disappointment in her friend's eyes."

"Really? That's great!" Hojo exclaimed, jumping to his feet and holding out his hand to help Kagome up.

"What do you want to see Hojo kun?" Kagome asked as she took Hojos hand and let him help her rise.

"Well it's getting late, so whatever's playing the soonest I guess." Hojo replied.

Kagome nodded and followed him into the mall. They walked up to the ticked booth together and read the show times.

"Mr. Amphibian?" Hojo asked incredulously.

"Eight o' clock, looks like that's the last movie their showing." Kagome said with a nod.

"Umm… might be interesting." Hojo shrugged. "Two tickets for 'Mr. Amphibian' please." Hojo said as he pushed 1400 yen towards the ticket lady.

She smiled and handed him two tickets. "Third door on your left."

"Want some popcorn or something Kagome chan?" Hojo asked.

"Sure, thanks" she replied.

"You can go find us a seat and I'll go get us some snacks, what kind of soda do you like?"

"Umm… root beer I guess."

"Ok then I'll meet you in the theater Kagome chan."

Kagome nodded and went to go find good seats. The theater was suspiciously empty. There were only about five other people, all sitting very close to the front row, and all carrying that comic book junkie image. Kagome sighed and settled herself down in the back row. A few minutes later Hojo appeared with the drinks and a gigantic bag of popcorn. He sat down next to Kagome and handed her drink to her and put the popcorn between them.

The movie soon started and the theater got quiet. Kagome paid half attention to the under funded movie, munching on movie popcorn and allowing her mind to wonder. The movie didn't seem to have much of a plot. As far as Kagome could gather it was about some sort of superhero frog man that was sort of like what Jaken would look like if he were as tall as Sesshomeru. The effects were utter crap and it was pretty obvious that the guy had painted clay on his face to make him look weird, and the rest of his body was pretty much normal. The frog man thing seemed to be fighting crime to impress a mechanic lady.

"Step aside VILLAN! I, Mr. Amphibian shall defeat you!" the frog thing declared.

One of the guys in the front row shot Kagome a glare as she burst into hysterical laughter.

"Nothing shall beat my amphibious powers!" Mr. Amphibian cried as he charged into a group of thugs wearing identical stripy blue and yellow shirts and ski masks.

Every time he landed a punch huge green letters would appear across the screen: POW, WHAM, SMACK, etc. Kagome and Hojo were laughing so hard tears were forming in there eyes. The other people in the theater were muttering angrily to themselves. When the movie was over Hojo walked along side Kagome, grinning in satisfaction at the vague shadow of a smile in her eyes, it was faint, but it was definitely there.

"That was by far the worst movie I have ever seen in my life." Hojo commented. "But I had lots of fun, how about you Kagome chan?"

"Yes it was fun Hojo kun, thanks for inviting me." Kagome replied with a genuine smile.

"Of course Kagome chan! It wouldn't have been any fun without you. We'll have to do it again sometime." Hojo exclaimed returning the smile.

"I'd like that Hojo kun."

Stars were beginning to dot the black sky; and the moon was high in the sky, half hidden by clouds. The air was crisp and cool; a slight breeze was rustling the leaves of the few trees outside the mall. There were few cars in the parking lot, and Hojo and Kagome were the only ones outside.

"Jeeze, its almost eleven. Your parents aren't going to be upset that you were out so late are they?" Hojo asked.

"No my mom wont mind" Kagome replied

'She didn't seem too concerned with me going back in time with a half demon who had attempted to kill me the first time we met. Nor did she mind me running around ancient Japan battling bloodthirsty demons night and day. I think I can handle walking around down town at eleven at night.' Kagome thought to herself humorlessly.

"Well, the least I can do is walk you home." Hojo said

"Oh, your gonna protect me from danger Hojo kun?"

"Something like that."

"My hero." Kagome laughed.

"Well umm… I think the bus stop is over this way Kagome chan." Hojo said, blushing.

They waited at the bus stop, chatting about Mr. Amphibian until the bus came. Hojo dropped 100 yen in the coin slot and they sat down near the back of the bus. While on the bus they sat in companionable silence, looking out the window at the quiet street.

"Well, this is my stop." Kagome said.

"Do you want me to walk you the rest of the way?" Hojo asked.

"No that's ok Hojo kun, the shrine is only a few blocks from here. Thanks for offering though."

"Are you sure Kagome chan?"

"I'm sure Hojo kun."

"Bye then Kagome chan. See you at school."

"Bye Hojo kun."

Kagome got off the bus and headed towards the shrine. She climbed back up the steps and felt the all to familiar tug at her heart as she passed the goshinboku tree. She quietly opened the front door and snuck up to her room. Kagome crawled under the blankets, not bothering to change into her pajamas, and was asleep in minutes.


	4. To be human

Chapter 3: To be human

Kurama could vaguely hear someone insistently calling his name. His head was swimming and he was having a hard time remembering where he was. He tried to open his eyes but there was a blinding light and he quickly shut them again. Strange. He remembered being submerged in blackness, where had all this light come from? He vaguely wondered if he was dead, but soon decided that was a dumb idea. If he were dead, he would probably be in Koenma's office right now being chewed out by the young prince and his messenger girl, Botan, the grim reaper. That, and he probably wouldn't be suffering from this splitting headache.

'Youko what the hell happened?' Kurama mentally asked, but this time there was no answer.

'Youko?'

Kurama remembered the darkness surrounding him, darkness so thick it was almost a tangible thing. There was the smell of sawdust, and fresh paint. They were hunting something. Kurama frowned, trying to put all the pieces together and remember. What was it they were looking for? Yuoko was bored, nothing new there. It was a demon, a very small demon. They followed it into a room, and there was darkness… and pain, unbearable pain. It all came rushing back to Kurama in seconds.

'Youko!' fear and worry washed over Kurama in waves

'Youko? Are you there?' there was no answer and Kurama felt like he was going to be sick.

'Youko where are you?' Kurama cried desperately.

'Damn it Youko answer me!' that strong comforting presence that was Youko Kurama had been with him since he was a child, and Kurama was terrified of the silence that answered him in place of the smooth arrogant voice of the fox.

"Youko!" Kurama cried out loud, jumping into a sitting position and finally completely awake. He was panting heavily, and cool beads of sweat were running down his cheeks… or were they tears? He couldn't tell. There was a moment's silence before that calm voice in his head answered, just as always did in the past.

'What the hell is all this racket about?' Youko asked in a groggy tone.

'Youko! Why the hell didn't you answer me!' Kurama demanded, unable to hide his relief.

'I was sleeping, why the hell did you wake me up?' Youko countered.

'Because that bitch was trying to separate us.' Kurama answered.

"Umm Kurama? Earth to Kurama… hellooo?" Kuramas mental conversation was interrupted by Yusuke waving his hand in front of Kuramas eyes. "Kurama are you ok man?"

Kurama blinked and focused on Yusuke. "Yes, I'm fine." Yusuke gave him a disbelieving look and shrugged.

"You've been out for a couple hours." He said, moving over towards a window to give Kurama more space.

'If that woman had succeeded in ripping our souls apart you'd be the one dead, not me.' Youko purred evilly.

'Oh thanks a lot Youko. I'm glad to have your support.' Kurama said with a snort, at witch Yusuke raised a questioning eyebrow.

'Oh calm down, if I had any interest in seeing you dead, Suuichi, I could have taken my freedom long ago.' Youko remarked with an air of self-superiority.

"Alright Kurama, if your done having conversations with your self would you mind telling me exactly what the hell happened back there?" Yusuke asked in annoyance. "You scared the shit out of me. I feel this big fucken dark aura, so I go to check it out and I find this big fucken gargoyle looken demon standing over you, while yer on the ground spazzing and twitchin, screaming nonsense. So I go to give that piece of shit a good beating and it turns into some skinny ass bitch and walks into a wall and disappears."

'And what if were not done having conversations with our selves? This hardly concerns him.' Youko sneered.

'Shut up Youko.'

'Just a few minutes ago you were whining and bitching because I was too out of it to talk, and now your telling me to be silent? I'm hurt Kurama, really I am.'

'Christ, your such a pain in the ass.'

'Face it, you cant live with out me.'

'We both could have died! Can't you be serious for five minutes!'

"…All that and that bastard fires us! Fucking shit! Koenma can drag his midget ass down here and fight these demons himself for all I care; technically we don't even work for him anymore! I'm not gonna stick around doing all of this shit if I'm not even spirit detective anymore! This isn't community service, you could have died or something! This is bull! They need to hurry the fuck up and hire new tantai. Keiko gets pissed every time I'm stuck going off and fighting demons for Koenma, out of the kindness of my own heart no less…"

Kurama barely registered the fact that Yusuke was still ranting as he continued arguing with Youko.

"That woman was obviously after one or both of us so there's a good chance she will be back to finish the job.' Kurama said grimly.

'That dumb bitch doesn't know what she's getting herself into.' Youko growled.

'It doesn't make any sense though, why try to pull us apart? She could have used that same type of energy to destroy us since we had no way of blocking it, what dose she have to gain by separating us?'

'She obviously wanted to fight me in my true form.' Youko said arrogantly.

'Youko you were in no shape to be a worthy opponent for Kuwabara, much less that shadow demon.' Kurama said, rolling his eyes. Youko didn't reply.

"Kurama you didn't answer me." Yusuke was leaning against the wall next to the window, arms crossed, looking at Kurama expectantly.

"Huh?" Kurama blinked in surprise… 'What was Yusuke talking about again?'

'How should I know? It probably has something to do with that girl of his, all he ever talks about is girls.' Youko replied with disinterest.

"You still haven't told me what happened with that weird demon thing." Yusuke clarified.

Kurama paused for a moment, trying to decide on how much he should tell Yusuke.

"She used her dark energy… like a wedge between Youko's soul and my own." Kurama finally said.

"And what the hell dose that mean?" Yusuke asked.

"It means she was trying to separate Youko and myself into two entities instead of one."

"What the hell for?"

"… I don't know." Kurama admitted with a sigh.

Yusuke thought this over for a moment before finally shrugging and offering Kurama a hand up. "I'm not gonna pretend like any of this makes any sense, but that thing'll be long gone by now and there's no use in sitting around in this creepy place all day."

Kurama nodded and took Yusuke's hand, allowing his friend to help him up. They headed for the door but Yusuke stopped, distracted by something.

"What are you looking at?" Kurama asked.

"There's something shiny stuck in the door." Yusuke replied.

"Shiny?" Kurama echoed.

'Typical human, easily distracted by shiny things.' Youko sneered.

'Like your one to talk.' Kurama snapped back.

"Yeah it's shiny like glass or something, but there's an energy coming from it, and it's pulsing." Yusuke answered, oblivious to Youko's insults.

Kurama stepped closer to get a good look at what Yusuke was talking about, and sure enough there was a tiny pink piece of crystal or glass stuck in the wood low to the ground, pulsing with energy so faint it was almost nonexistent.

"A parting gift from my attacker perhaps?" Kurama wondered aloud.

"Who knows? Should we leave it? It could be dangerous if it has anything to do with that thing that was attacking you." Yusuke said

"What is it though?" Kurama muttered.

'That woman would not have left something like this behind on purpose, it was on that disgusting pet of hers as I recall. It must have gotten stuck in the wood when the creature used shadow teleportation to go through the door. The energy from this glass is on a higher wave than the dark aura of the demon so I guess it got left behind in the shadows.' Youko said, apparently in one of his rare moods where he was actually willing to make things easier for his human companions by sharing some his vast knowledge and experience.

'What the hell is all of that supposed to mean Youko?' Kurama asked.

'It means that the bitch lost that weird chunk of glass on accident, therefore it might be useful and we should take it.' Youko summarized.

Kurama shrugged and dug the glass out of the wood with his thumbnail and stuck it in his pocket. "It might be important." He told Yusuke, who nodded in agreement.

'Who's obsessed with shiny things now?' he taunted Youko.

'See if I ever share my infinite wisdom with you ever again.' Youko snapped.

Kurama laughed as he stepped out into the hallway and Yusuke rolled his eyes in annoyance. They made there way down the stairs and crossed the half finished lobby. He pushed open the door to the main entrance and walked slowly across the parking lot, his muscles slightly sore from his encounter with the shadow demon.

"Where are you going anyway?" Yusuke asked.

"School." Kurama replied over his shoulder.

"But I thought your school was in that direction." Yusuke insisted, pointing in the opposite direction of where Kurama was currently walking.

"My mother and I will be moving soon, she had me transferred to a different school."

"Where you moving to?"

"Not far, but farther than it would be convenient for me to walk to my old school." Kurama answered with an indifferent shrug.

"All right then, see you after school I guess. I'll drag Kuwabara along and you can tell us about this new school of yours. Meet us outside of McDonalds."

"All right. I'll see you then, I guess." Kurama said with a nod. It seemed like Kurama had been hanging around Yusuke and Kuwabara a lot more than usual ever sense the barrier came down. The first explanation for his sudden change in social habits that came to mind was the fact that Hiei was busy on border patrol and hardly had enough time for anything else; however it was not like Hiei and Kurama ever really hung out like normal people. They were both solitary creatures, so basically the basis for their friendship was Hiei's random visits where he would suddenly pop through a window and start bitching about one thing or another. His visits were usually brief, and if there was a point to the visit at all, straight to the point. Sometimes he would sit silently at Kurama's windowsill and stare off into space or watch while Kurama did his homework. Hiei's visits were very rare, and now with being drug around by Yusuke and Kuwabara all the time Kurama was beginning to feel more like a normal human teen. Naturally he was anything but a normal human teen, however it was a nice feeling. Perhaps it was this superficial peace that made this whole normal human social life seem like a safe idea.

'Perhaps.' Yuoko agreed, catching Kurama's train of thought. 'All you need now is a girl friend.'

'Shut up Youko. And stop following my private thoughts.' Kurama snapped.

'A wild mate, thin, and slinky, with nice strong hips for child bearing. If you need any advice on girls you can always ask me. I know everything there is to know about females." Youko continued, ignoring Kurama.

'Yeah and naturally it would have to be a girl who has no problem with guys with split personalities who randomly disappear to Makai for days at a time.' Kurama added sarcastically.

'Exactly!' Youko exclaimed.

'Whatever.'

Kurama stopped in front of his new school and glanced at his watch. 'Right on time.' He thought triumphantly to himself. There were a few students entering the building, all wearing green and white uniforms.

'We are not going to be wearing green and white. No way in hell are we wearing that.' Yuoko insisted.

'Shut up Youko and stop being so damn vain.' Kurama hissed 'your giving me a headache.'

Kurama followed the other students inside and wondered down a random hallway. 'Now where the hell is the main office?' he muttered more to himself than to Youko.

'Just keep following this sea of horrid, tacky green uniforms.' Yuoko replied.

'That's what you say about the uniforms of every school you see, including the school were just at.' Kurama said with a sigh. Yuoko chose not to respond.

After a bit of walking Kurama found the main office and picked up his schedule. They were all honors classes of course, starting with advanced history. After listening to Youko's ranting for his whole life, and the occasional dreams about Youko's past, Kurama probably knew more about Japanese history than any of his teachers.

'Now if I can just figure out where all my classes are…' Kurama was tired from running around looking for demons all night, not to mention almost having his soul damaged beyond repair. He was not in the mood for wandering aimlessly around this new school looking for some history class he could probably do a better job at teaching than whoever his instructor was.

'What are we looking for again?' Youko asked.

'408B' Kurama answered.

'Oh good luck with that then. I'm going to take a nap.' Yuoko said with a laugh.

Koenma looked at the numbers on the doors. '204A? But before I turned that last corner the number said 367D!' he stopped and looked back at his schedule, vaguely aware of the fact that he had only been in this school a few minutes, and there was already several timid girls following him around. Some things never changed.


	5. Skipping School

Chapter 4: Skipping School

Kagome opened bleary eyes and tried to focus on the clock sitting next to her bead. '11:00! Shit! I'm late for school… scratch that, I already missed half the day. Not really much point in going, it'll practically be over by the time I get there.' Kagome thought to herself. She groaned and rolled out of bed, stripping out of her dirty clothes and heading for the bathroom ready for a bath. She soaked in the warm water for a while, allowing her self to get some much needed relaxation.

Afterwards she quickly dried off and changed into a pair of jeans and a gray pullover hoodie with a logo for a company that makes skateboards on it. She dug around in her closet for a clean pair of socks and searched intently under her bead for her missing shoe. She lay on her stomach with one arm stretched under her bead feeling around for the troublesome shoe when her hand brushed over something very familiar to her.

'My bow…' she thought, snatching her hand back as if she were burned. 'I won't be needing that anymore, maybe its time I get rid of it.'

After a moment she finally found her shoe and headed down stairs into the kitchen for some lunch. She dug around in the fridge and pulled out some salami and mustard along with some bread and proceeded to make a giant salami sandwich. She cut her sandwich into triangles and returned the mustard and what was left of the package of salami to the fridge. She wrapped her sandwich in a paper towel and headed out towards the shrine steps, taking care to avert her eyes as she passed the goshinboku tree. She walked down the steps to the street and made her way to the park deciding that it would be most appropriate place to play hooky. She liked sitting in the grass amongst the tall trees. it reminded her of the feudal era.

Kagome found a spot under a big leafy oak tree and began to eat her sandwich. She basked in the shade, the light breeze playing across her face. The sound of the dancing leaves like familiar music. There was no one else around; all the usual park goers were either at work or at school so Kagome had the whole place to herself. It was just so peaceful. She finished her sandwich and threw away her napkin before settling back down against the tree and closeting her eyes.

If she tried hard enough she could almost imagine she were back in the feudal era. The song of the wind blowing through the trees at the park was nothing in comparison to the serenade of the winds dance through the endless forests in ancient times. At the park there were a few birds carrying a soft melody, but on the other side of the well the forests were alive with wild life. And the smell… Kagome tried to imagine how the forest used to smell, a soft sweet smell. Inuyasha smelled like the forest, Kagome remembered. She pictured the way all the blossoms looked in the springtime. In the feudal era Kagome could always catch the faint sense of demons, although they were usually ridiculously weak, or far off, they were always there. Demonic energy was unmistakable once you learned to identify it. That was the biggest difference between modern times and the feudal era, that little voice in the back of Kagome's head that's always telling her there's demons around instantly shut up every time she came home. Kagome had no trouble remembering what demonic auras felt like, powerful energy tugging at her senses, dark energy, she had to admit she missed the feeling. She could almost feel it right now.

Kagome's eyes snapped open. She could feel it right now, a demon aura close by. Kagome focused on her surroundings, there was definitely a demon close by and it knew she was there. It seemed to be trying to sneak up on her. She slowly got to her feet and turned towards the direction from where the demon was coming from and waited with her arms crossed over her chest. The demon paused when it realized that it had been spotted and seemed to think over its next course of action. Kagome was annoyed at being caught unarmed and half asleep out in the park by herself, however she wasn't worried. It would be difficult to find a lower level demon than the one that stood before her at the moment. It was humanoid with spines running down its back. Its skin was a red orange color, and it had a squished nose and eyes that sat in the sides of its head like a fish. All in all it reminded Kagome of Mr. Amphibian, except Mr. Amphibian was gray green.

"Giive it to mee…" the demon hissed.

"What's that? you should speak more clearly." Kagome figured the silly creature was talking about the shikon jewel, but it had been a while since she had seen a demon and she wanted to torment it for a bit.

"Give iit ttoo meee." It hissed louder.

"I'm sorry I cant understand you, you should really work on your Japanese." Kakome replied.

"The shiikon no taamaa, giive it too meee." The demon advanced towards Kagome with its claws ready.

"Oh you mean this?" Kagome asked, showing the creature the shikon jewel around her neck.

"Give iitt tooo meee." It growled

"Now that's no way to ask, you should try being more polite." Kagome scolded lightly. The only response she got from the demon was a low growl. "No? Too bad then. You can't have it."

At those words the demon lunged at Kagome with all its speed, but unfortunately for the demon all its speed did not amount to much. Kagome landed one good punch to its face, right between the eyes, and sent the poor creature staggering backwards. The demon pulled itself together and hissed menacingly at Kagome. The demon grew a deadly whip like tail that was covered in sharp spines and made a swipe for Kagomes throat. Kagome dodged backwards and summoned her miko powers to the surface. The creature hissed as he eyed her battle aura warily before finally backing down and retreating back to wherever it came from.

"Well that was odd…" Kagome muttered out loud. 'Where the hell did it go? I can't sense it anymore.' She shook her head and made her way out of the park, back toward the main street. 'maybe I shouldn't get rid of my long bow after all.' Kagome mused 'but how exactly can I get away with carrying a long bow around in modern times… maybe I should join some sort of archery club or something. aha! That's what I'll do! I'll go join an archery club today since I'm not in school and I wont have to worry about people thinking I'm homicidal if they see me walking around with my bow, and I could get one of those things to carry it in so I wont freak people out…' Kagome stopped and tried to remember where she saw that archery place. Once she finally remembered she zigzagged down a few streets till she finally found the place. She went inside and signed up and bought a black zip up case that would hold her bow and quiver.

After talking to a few of the people in charge of the archery range about rules and everything Kagome headed back home. She left her shoes by the front door and went up to her room to dig her longbow and arrows out from underneath her bed. She put her bow and quiver in the case she bought for it and leaned it next to the door. The big bulky case would slow down her reaction time in a dangerous situation, since she would have to unzip it, take her bow out, restring it, and dig out her quiver before she would be able to fight; but she would not be able to just walk around with a bow and arrows on her back either so it was a risk she would have to take. It was not likely that she would run into any particularly powerful demons anyway. During her time in the feudal era she had learned to string her bow quickly, and she also learned not to loose her cool in a dangerous situation, Kagome figured shed be fine, even if she somehow managed to run into a strong demon.

Kagomes train of thought was interrupted when the phone rang. She dashed down stares and answered it just in time.

"Your son or daughter has missed one or more of his of her classes today. If you have any questions or concerns please talk to Betty Myers in the attendance office at 425-776-9073. As I'm sure you are aware attendance is a very impor-" the automated recording was cut short as Kagome hung up the phone with an exasperated snort.

"Why doesn't any one other than recordings from the attendance office ever call me?"


	6. Frenchfries

Chapter 5: French-fries

Yusuke and Kuwabara sat outside McDonalds eating their over sized cheeseburgers. Kuwabara sat next to his over sized backpack, his burger in one hand, and his history book in the other. Yusuke eyed his friend suspiciously over his burger.

"What's with the book?" he asked.

"I failed my last history test and I'm gonna have to retake it on Friday. I can't figure out all these names and dates and… stuff." Kuwabara replied.

"Relax man, just ask Kurama about it. That guy knows every thing." Yusuke said reassuringly.

Kuwabara nodded and stuffed his history book back into his backpack and took a sip of his soda. "Where is he anyway?"

"His new school is a bit farther away, he should be getting here soon though." Yusuke answered.

There was a long silence, and the two boys attacked their lunch with a vigor found only in wolves… and teenage boys. Finally Kuwabara asked, "So how'd your mission go?"

"Huh?" Yusuke asked.

"You said you and Kurama had to go chase down a shadow demon this morning. How'd it go?" Kuwabara clarified.

"I was stuck wandering around aimlessly for hours, and by the time I found the demon it was already kicking the crap out of Kurama. On top of that the damn thing got away. Kurama said it was trying to separate him from the fox and other than that he hasn't really told me what's going on. All and all not one of my better days." Yusuke replied.

"Wow that sucks."

"Yeah kinda."

"Kurama better get here soon or else I'm gonna eat his French fries." Kuwabara finally announced after a few moments silence.

"You wouldn't dare." Came a soft growl from behind them.

"Damn it Kurama! You shouldn't sneak up on people like that!" Yusuke snapped.

Kurama laughed and dug around in the giant McDonalds bag for the French fries he was promised. Yusuke raised an eyebrow at Kurama's uncharacteristic antics and handed the misbehaving fox his drink.

"They didn't have Dr. Pepper, is Mr. Pib ok?" Yusuke asked.

"Its all the same." Kurama replied with a shrug, and took a sip of the drink in question. Kurama would always get French fries whenever the three met at places like McDonalds or Burger King. Yuoko disapproved of fast food, and so Kurama had learned at a young age not to eat those super fattening death burgers. Youko was always a very persuasive parental when Kurama was a child and he never had a problem with resorting to mean tricks to get his way. Mean tricks like telling Kurama that foxes were allergic to cheese burgers and that Kurama would spontaneously combust if he ate one. Of course Kurama eventually learned that he would not die if he ate a cheeseburger, but he still avoided fast food. Yuoko, however did not seem to have a problem with French fries and thus Kurama delighted in the delicious deep-fried salty potatoey goodness.

"So did you have a nice day at school Suiichi dear?" Yusuke asked, with his best imitation of an old lady voice.

"Did you even go to school today Yusuke dear?" Kurama asked, not bothering to change his voice.

"Nope." Yusuke replied with a disinterested yawn.

"Keikos gonna kick your ass if you keep skipping Yusuke." Kuwabara said.

"She hasn't really been talking to me much lately, I wonder if she's still mad about the whole me being stuck in demon world for three years thing…"

"You idiot! She forgave you for that months ago, she's mad because you wont get your act together man!" Kuwabara snapped, with a rare moment of wisdom.

"She said she'd marry me after I graduated from high school, so that's in umm…" Yusuke counted the months off on his fingers. "Five and a half months." He concluded. "I got my act together."

"Well, you gotta show Keiko that!" Kuwabara declared.

'I told you all he talks about is girls.' Yuoko muttered.

'At least he has something to talk about. All you ever do is complain.' Kurama replied, munching happily on his french-fries.

'I do not!' Youko cried.

'Your complaining right now.'

'Am not, am not, am not."

'Real mature Youko.'

"So Kurama it looks like you're the only single guy left on the team. Yusuke's got Keiko, and I got Yukina. Its time for us to find you a girl ya know." Kurama almost choked on his fries as Kuwabara said this.

"What about Hiei? Or did he hook up with that creepy lady from the tournament… umm Mukuro?" Yusuke asked.

"Who shrimp? Shrimp doesn't count. He's never gonna get a girl, and what girl from the tournament? I didn't get to go remember? Me being human and all… what's with that any way? How come I'm the only one who's completely human in the group?" Kuwabara asked.

"Hiei is the only one in the group whose completely demon." Yusuke added.

'I'm completely demon!' Youko snapped.

"And why the hell dose Koenma think he can fire us anyway?" Kuwabara continued his rant.

"Because you're the only one in the group who's completely human. And I guess its bad form having the leader of a group of spirit detectives be the kid whose going to be the sole ruler of demon world one day." Yusuke replied.

'In your dreams monkey boy!' Youko growled, now thoroughly annoyed.

Kuwabara gave Yusuke a searching glance, but shrugged it off and took a sip of his drink. Kurama sighed in relief at the fact that Kuwabara only directed his attention at his social life for a moment before changing the subject. Kurama was truly thankful for Kuwabara's short attention span.

"But seriously Kurama, what's the deal? Your like some kind of girl magnet, so why are you still single?" Yusuke asked innocently. Kurama had some how managed to forget that Yusuke, aside from all outward appearances, did not have as short an attention span as Kuwabara's.

"Well I'm afraid it's because my magnetism only attracts the insane girls who desire only to follow me around at a distance, and collect strands of my hair." Kurama explained.

"Oooh the creepy stocker girls!" Yusuke said with a laugh. "Yeah, that could be a problem. Sorry man."

"Umm why are you complaining about having a bunch of girls following you around all the time? Are you sure you're not gay?" Kuwabara asked, completely missing Kurama's point.

"No, no, no, not just any girls. The creepy stocker girls. Their creepy." Yusuke clarified.

"Oh." Kuabara replied.

"So what are you guys doing today?" Kurama asked, trying to change the subject.

"I'm gonna go see my Yukina." Kuwabara answered.

"Yeah, I promised Keiko I'd go to the mall with her today." Yusuke said.

"What are you gonna do Kurama?" Kuwabara asked.

'Yeah Youko what are _we _going to do today?' Kurama asked sarcastically.

'It's not my fault you don't have a life, don't bother me over it.' Youko drawled.

"I'm just going to go home and catch up on some homework." Kurama answered.

'See, even the humans think you're sad.'

'Shut up Youko.'

"Well I gotta go. Keiko will kill me if I'm late." Yusuke said, as he gathered up his trash and tossed it in the garbage.

"Yeah I should probably go too, bye guys." Kuwabara added. They all exchanged good byes, and Yusuke and Kuwabara left Kurama sitting in front of McDonalds finishing off the last of his french-fries.

'So… you wanna go play around in Makai? It could be fun.' Youko asked playfully.

'Maybe.' Kurama laughed at the pure excitement that was coming off the fox in waves. 'But we have to go home first so I can drop off my back pack, and we should call mother and tell her we'll be at a friends house or something… and I have a math worksheet I should do before we go…"

'I'm thinking you should leave out the "we" part when your talking to Shiori san. I don't think she'll quite understand.' Youko laughed

'I know that!'

After another brief argument with the fox, Kurama headed home. He dropped his backpack off by the front door and tried to turn on the living room lights, but they wouldn't work. He flipped the light switch back and forth a few times for good measure and banged his fist against the wall with a frustrated sigh.

'Afraid of the dark Kurama?' Youko taunted.

'Shut up Youko.' Kurama snapped.

'The powers probably out, I don't sense anything odd and I doubt that bitch would try anything so soon .' Youko said reassuringly.

Kurama shrugged and went to open a window, but the surface was covered in a thick metallic black substance. 'Do you still think the powers just out?' Kurama hissed.

'My mistake.' Youko amended.

"Well, well, well. It looks like the fox has fallen into my trap twice in one day! How convenient." The woman from before was leaning idly against a wall on the other side of the room, examining her fingernails.

'I really hate this woman.' Youko growled. 'When I get my claws on her…'

Kurama nodded his agreement and withdrew a rose from his hair and attempted to transform it into his rose whip, but as expected nothing happened.

'It was worth a try.' He muttered. 'Now what?'

'I don't know, kill her?' Youko hissed back.

'How?'

'Figure it out!'

The shadow demon stepped gracefully away from the wall and walked towards Kurama, the shadows rolling and thickening in her wake till there was nothing but blackness. She gathered her energy and threw it at Kurama before he could react.

Then Kurama was aware of nothing but the maddening pain and he knew it was all over. It was the same as before only this time there would be no one to save him. The pain was more than he could bear, and he soon fell into blissful unconsciousness.


	7. Too Trusting

12

Umm hello… thank you to every one who reviewed, and also to all the people who are still reading this story. I decided to draw out my cliff hanger from the last chapter by making this chapter a little longer than usual, however my chapters are slightly short to begin with so in the future I'm hoping to make all my chapters close to this length. Oh yeah and one more thing! This chapter takes place the next day, the attack on Kurama happened the night before. Just in case any of you are getting confused with me jumping from one caricature to the other in my chapters… ah hell! Whatever it should all make sense in chapter seven… or at least by the end of chapter seven… or something like that. Uhhh sooo read and enjoy?

Chapter 6: Too Trusting

Hiei hated the way the air tasted in the human world. After being stuck there for a few years Hiei figured he'd get used to it, and to an extent he did, but he could never completely get over how stale and impure the air was in the human world. He sighed in exasperation at the disgusting, broken little world his friends insisted on taking residence in. If it wasn't for the fox he would never bother coming to this ridiculous place. It was too noisy, too polluted. He couldn't stand it. The only place he could put up with was the park. Back when he was forced to stay by Koenma, he took up residence in the leafy branches of the big oak trees. It reminded him of Makai, except the trees in Makai were much bigger, and they blanketed the landscape for hundreds of miles.

Hiei sighed and wondered when Kurama would be getting out of that human school he insisted on going to. He settled himself into a more comfortable position on the branch he was sitting in, and adjusted his katana. He crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes, deciding to get in some rest since he had so much time to kill. He was just about to doze off when he heard someone passing his tree.

'Stupid noisy humans.' Hiei concluded.

He opened his eyes and looked for the source of the sound. It was a teenage girl, probably on her way too school. She had long, wavy black hair, and a round somber face. She was wearing a green and white sailor suit style school uniform, complete with a short green skirt. She was carrying a big black zip up case of some sort over her shoulder and on top of it she was carrying a big yellow back pack.

The girl suddenly stopped and seemed to stare off in to space for a second before dropping her back pack and stepping into what looked like some sort of defensive stance.

'That human doesn't sense me, dose she?' Hiei wondered. 'No that's impossible. Even if she did have the ability to sense demonic auras, there's no way she could sense my aura when I'm concealing it.'

The girl dropped quickly into a kneeling position and unzipped the black case and pulled out a long bow. She quickly strung her bow and pulled out a single arrow.

'That's impossible!' Hiei hissed. 'How could she know I'm here!'

The girl notched the arrow and drew it back.

'I feel stupid now…' Hiei thought.

The girl wasn't aiming at him; she was aiming in the opposite direction from where he was sitting in fact. The tip of the arrow glowed pink with purifying energy and flew straight towards its mark: a mid level mole demon. The mole exploded in a flash of pink light, and soon there was nothing left but purified mole chunks.

'So she is a miko?' Hiei wondered, feeling even more stupid for being too distracted by this human girl to notice the intruding demon.

Kagome took one last look around, clearing her mind and searching for that other aura. She was positive she had sensed two demons, not just one. Or was that just some sort of weird eco of the first. Kagome closed her eyes and focused on the energy in the park. No there was definitely another demon around some where, but she couldn't figure out where it was. She sighed and unstrung her bow, putting it back in its case and slinging the case back over her shoulder. She reached for her back pack and put it on over the case that contained her bow.

'What ever it is it probably saw me obliterate that mole demon, my guess it's too afraid to attack me now.' Kagome surmised.

She headed towards the other side of the park but stopped when she felt the odd aura begin to follow her. She turned around and scanned the trees, hoping to catch sight of the demon. When she finally decided this was a futile effort she turned and headed for school, trying to ignore the feeling in the back of her mind that said she was being followed.

'This is not good. I can _not_ have a demon following me to school.' Kagome thought desperately as she tried to sneak peeks at it over her shoulder. She huffed in annoyance when she was unable to find any sign of her stocker.

The demon seemed to hang back once Kagome reached her school and she finally heaved a sigh of relief, guessing it wasn't going to cause her any trouble till she was at least out of school. She walked to her first class, advanced history, and took her seat by the window near the back of the classroom. Kagome didn't bother listening to the teacher; she had already lived through the subject he was trying to teach and she didn't need to listen to him lecture about it. The true bloodshed and chaos of the feudal era was not nearly as nice as the words popular historians write in high school textbooks. Hell, half the things this guy was teaching were wrong anyway. Kagome had not necessarily personally witnessed everything her teacher was lecturing about, and she never actually got to meet Nabunaga Oda, (much to her disappointment) however news traveled fast in the feudal era. She frequently caught word of distant battles while stopping in towns and villages for rest, and to stock up on supplies. Inuyasha had little interest in human wars and politics, but Sango and Miroku filled Kagome in on recent history.

Kagome was staring off into space when she felt the faint aura of her stocker. 'Damn it! I thought the damn thing left when I got here.' She thought.

She frowned and focused on the energy, trying to figure out where it was coming from. She looked out the window and studied the landscape wondering if this demon might be a threat to her school. There was a concrete path leading up to the side entrance to the school, with steps leading down to another building full of classrooms. Close to the main building there were several picnic tables, and in between the two buildings was a large grass quad. There were three or four small trees growing close to the other building and a large dogwood tree off to the left, close to the front of the school and away from both buildings. Kagome felt a pull at her senses as her eyes landed on the lone tree.

'So that's where it's hiding then.' Kagome watched the tree intently from where she sat. A girl around Kagome's age walked past the tree, she had a messenger bag backpack slung bandolier style across her chest and she was chatting happily on her cell phone. Kagome's heart almost stopped in her chest as she watched as the girl walked under the tree and momentarily disappeared from view behind the foliage. She stared in horror at the tree for several seconds until finally the girl appeared on the other side, unharmed. Kagome uttered an audible sigh of relief at which she received several questioning glances from her classmates and an angry glare from her frustrated teacher.

'That demons just sitting there waiting peacefully for me to get out of school… it probably doesn't want to cause a scene in front of a whole bunch of people, so it's probably going to try to corner me once I'm alone. Not that I care so long as it isn't going to hurt any of the other kids.' Kagome reasoned. She focused all her attention on the demons aura for the rest of the class period, and through all of the next class, but the demon never moved from its spot in the tree. As Kagome was walking to her third period class she was cornered in the hallway she was cornered by a few of her old friends.

"Kagome where were you yesterday?" asked the first girl.

"Were you sick?" asked a second.

"No I wasn't sick, I just over slept." Kagome answered. Three months ago the well refused to allow Kagome return to her family back in the feudal era, and ever since then Kagome had made a startling recovery of several known deadly illnesses as well as some unknown ones. Her school was shocked by her show of good health, something Kagome Higurashi, the notoriously sick girl, was not known for.

A third girl sighed audibly and shook her head. "Kagome you were too busy sleeping the day away and you completely missed it!"

"Missed what?" Kagome asked cautiously.

"The most gorgeous guy of all time just transferred to our school." The second girl replied.

"He's so hot, it's like staring at the Sun." the third girl added.

"But he didn't show up for school today, you completely missed him Kagome." The first girl continued.

"I heard his name was Suuichi Minamino." The third girl supplied.

Kagome tried to keep a fake smile plastered to her face; however over the years she had become less and less immune to the endless babble that her friends called "girl talk". She looked from one girl to the next trying to decide if they were going to be leaving any time soon or if she would have to find a way to escape their ignorant chatter on her own. Fortunately the three girls decided it was time to go to their classes and they finally left Kagome in peace

'Just two more classes till lunch time.' Kagome thought.

Hiei lounged lazily on a branch of a large tree, silently puzzling over the mysterious miko that he had followed from the park. He could have sworn that the girl had known he was fallowing her, but that was impossible. No human could ever have senses strong enough to track him when he was concealing his energy. Not even Kuwabara could do that, hell not many demons could manage it either. He vaguely wondered if miko powers could allow a human to find demon auras that were skillfully suppressed or masked like his was. He honestly did not know, however he did not like the idea. He had never come across a miko in his life time, they were quite rare, and he was beginning to realize he did not know anything about them. He had no way of knowing what they were capable of, or how to deal with them.

'Stupid humans.' Hiei growled to himself. This simple human had managed to thoroughly vex him to the point of muttering curses to himself in several different languages, about half of them only spoken in distant regions of Makai.

Hiei listened quietly as a human girl walked under his tree, talking cheerfully on a cell phone. "Oh of course not!" the girl said. "Yeah, I know it's such a shame that he dumped her. Oh! But since we're on the subject of boy's, the most beautiful guy I have ever seen in my entire life just transferred to my school yesterday." The girl continued, oblivious to Hiei's presence.

'This is beginning to sound suspiciously familiar…' Hiei thought absently.

"His name is Suuichi Minamino. From what I hear he's a straight A student. Apparently he had some kind of fan club back at his old school, I bet it won't be long before some of girls at this school follow suit. The best part of all is that he is totally and blessedly single!" the girl giggled stupidly.

'So this is the school that stupid fox switched to. He doesn't seem to be here however. I wonder what came up; Kurama never avoided that stupid human school of his unless something having to do with demon world was involved.' Hiei reflected. 'The fox can take care of himself. This miko girl is far more interesting.' He decided.

The girl with the cell phone walked into one of the big buildings and disappeared, leaving Hiei once again alone outside the school. He listened as the bell signaled for all the students to leave their classes and move on to their next ones. An hour or so later another bell sounded, and the students mechanically followed its command. Hiei was used to waiting outside Kurama's old school, and he was accustomed to the workings of ningen schools, however they never ceased to irritate his logic. What exactly was the point of moving from one cramped little classroom to the next six times a day on a daily basis? Anything a person needed to know they could learn for themselves out on the road. The stupid ningen teachers had knowledge, (useless and incomplete knowledge but knowledge none the less) however those teachers had no experience. The only things they knew they had learned about in books, but never seen for themselves. Hiei could not understand why Kurama obediently subjected himself to the foolish human schools. The fox probably knew more about his subjects than all his teachers combined.

After a couple hours a bell rang and students left their fourth period classes and went to lunch. Many kids piled into the quad and ate their lunches in the grass, or at the picnic tables. Most of the humans sat in groups of five or ten, talking loudly amongst themselves. Some of the groups were identifiable by the color of their clothing, but with some of the groups it was more difficult to find what similarities the teens had that made them sit together. At one time Hiei had gotten so board waiting to deliver a message to Kurama that he had used his jagon eye to try to figure out what made these humans keep such close nit circles. Human social patterns were particularly irritating to Hiei who had discovered by observation that they stayed in their designated packs for the most ridiculous of reasons.

Finally the girl Hiei had been waiting for stepped out of the main building with her backpack slung over shoulder along side the case that contained her bow. She walked casually past the picnic tables, pausing to talk to a boy and his friends before resuming her march toward Hiei, to his absolute horror. He waited for her to stop or change directions, but she did neither. She walked straight up to the tree he was lounging in and sat at the base of the trunk.

'Coincidence?' Hiei wondered when the girl proceeded to dig through her back pack, removing her lunch and a big Language Arts text book. He silently moved down till he was on a branch right above the girl, and tried to get a better look at her. The black case was set harmlessly off to the side, and her attention seemed to be on the book.

"Why are you stalking me?" the girl asked as she turned a page, frowned at whatever she had been reading, and finally pulled a notebook out of her back pack and wrote down a few notes.

Hiei sat in silent shock for a few seconds. He had gone over the possibility that she knew he was there several times, but he had not actually though that it could be true. Suddenly he felt a blow to his pride; not only did this human girl know he had been following her, she had approached him on her own accord, and was now sitting underneath him without any weapon that she could reach fast enough to defend herself with, and she was doing her homework! Hardly paying him any attention. The girl was clearly not afraid of him. He finally opened his mouth to speak, but thought better of it. Instead he used his mental powers to speak directly into her mind. 'I was waiting for someone else who goes to this school, but I saw you destroy that low level demon and decided you were more interesting.' Hiei almost growled when the girl did not seem the least bit intimidated by the voice in her head, that was one of his tricks that he found was grunted to scare the shit out of any human. It did not seem to be working this time. 'He dose not seem to be here today anyway.'

"And you have nothing better to do than antagonize a mere mortal such as my self?" The girl asked sarcastically, jotting down more notes before taking a huge bite out of the salami sandwich she had brought for lunch.

'Hn.' Hiei replied.

The girl laughed, amused by his one word response.

'Do you mock me girl?' Hiei growled.

She laughed even harder at the irritation in his tone. "You remind me of someone I used to know, that's all." She finally choked out, trying to repress her uncontrolled laughter.

'Hn.' Hiei muttered.

The girl finally looked up from her text book and tried to get a look at her stocker but Hiei was too fast, darting up to a higher branch and disappearing into the foliage before she could see anything other than a brief flash of black.

"Damn it! I already know where you are, so why won't you let me look at you?" the girl hissed, finally irritated. "It's impolite to hide yourself and talk to someone who can't see you."

'Hn. I was following you this morning, what makes you think I'm going to show you my face?' Hiei answered; slightly amused that he had finally gotten the girl to loose her temper.

"There's a difference between following and stocking you know! Following is when you follow someone around without trying to hide the fact that you're following them, when they can see where you are. Stocking is when you hide in the shadows and follow someone around. If you had been following me I wouldn't have minded, but I really hate stockers!" the girl yelled. She set her book down next to her backpack and stood up with a huff. She eyed the tree for a moment before grabbing on to the lowest limb with both hands and pulling herself up. She straddled the limb for a second, trying to work up her courage. Finally she crawled closer to the trunk and used it for balance as she stood up on the limb and reached for the next one.

Hiei stared wide eyed as the girl slowly climbed up the tree. It was not something he had thought a human would be completely incapable of doing, but he had certainly thought that this particular human lacked the strength and balance to do. And he had certainly not been expecting her to try. There was no point to her attempting to scale the tree, didn't she see that? Even if she could climb all the way to where Hiei was comfortably perched he could move to somewhere else long before she could catch a glimpse of him. She moved up the tree at a snails pace, struggling to stay balanced the entire time. Hiei watched as she stood on her tip toes, with one hand bracing her self against the trunk and the other reaching up for another branch. Just watching her made Hiei want to cringe, witch was in itself odd since cringing was not something he did on a regular basis. She was going to fall; it was only a matter of time. She had already come pretty close to plummeting to the ground, but the girl stubbornly continued her climb. She was now high enough off the ground that a fall would definitely mean serious injury on her part, if she did not manage to snap her neck and die first.

Hiei winced as the girls foot slipped off the branch she was standing on leaving her hanging from the branch above her by one hand. Undaunted, she grabbed the branch with her other hand and pulled herself up. She used her momentum to try to slip her knee over the branch, but she didn't get it far enough over the branch and she slipped down again, loosing her grip on the branch and falling. Hiei moved as fast as his demonic speed would allow, not even bothering to think about what he was doing. He darted to one of the lower branches and caught the girl under the arms before she could fall too far. He held her pressed to his chest, with both arms wrapped around her waist. "Stupid human." He growled, finally speaking out loud.

The girl looked up at his face and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry about that." She replied.

"Hn." Hiei answered, as he leapt agilely to the ground and put her down. He rolled his eyes and jumped back onto the branch above her sitting against the trunk with his arms crossed across his chest.

The girl glanced up and looked at Hiei curiously, and he decided that there would be no point in moving since she already got a look at his face, unless he was interested in watching her try to kill herself again that is. "Thanks for saving me." She chirped happily.

Hiei just shrugged silently in reply, choosing to stare off into space.

"So what's your name anyway?" the girl pressed.

Hiei looked at her for a long moment trying to decide weather or not to answer the question. "Hiei." He wasn't quite sure why he had indulged her question; he finally shrugged and went back to staring at the sky.

"My name is Higurashi Kagome; it's nice to meet you Hiei." Hiei snorted in response to her polite greeting but Kagome did not seem to notice.

After a while the bell rang and Kagome gathered up her things, saying a polite goodbye to Hiei as she headed to her next class. Kagome paid even less attention in her class than usual, her mind too busy puzzling over the unusual fire demon. He reminded her of a cross between Inuyasha and Sesshomeru… or maybe Sango. Regardless, it was a scary thought. Kagome giggled as she thought of what Hiei would say if he knew he was being compared to ether of the dog demons. Her teacher raised an eyebrow at her, but finally shrugged and continued his lecture about the cell structures of plants. Kagome was happy to have found a demon in her time that didn't seem to be completely homicidal, even if he was a little anti social.

The clock ticked by and finally the bell rang, signaling the end of school. Kagome focused her senses once she stepped out into the front of the school but Hiei seemed to be gone. She was slightly disappointed but she figured he had better things to do than follow a human girl around all day. She was walking down a small deserted street when she felt the familiar demonic aura following her at a distance, flicking from tree to tree at incredible speeds.

"Hiei your stalking me again." Kagome yelled over her shoulder. 'Ok so maybe he _doesn't_ have anything better to do than follow a human girl around all day.' Kagome thought. Hiei appeared instantly at her side, walking at a human pace. He had his hands in his pockets, and walked silently alongside Kagome.

Kagome laughed and offered him a smile. "Now, was that so hard?" she asked innocently.

Hiei rolled his eyes and kept silent. Where ever Kurama was he would probably be home before Shiori, his human mother. That would mean that if Hiei went looking for him at his house he would likely find him after six o' clock. Hiei had four hours to kill, and this miko girl was the only remotely interesting thing he had encountered all day.

Kagome smiled and continued to walk in silence, the feel of Hieis dark aura reminding her of the feudal era. They wound their way down a few streets until they finally stood in front of the shrine steps. Kagome climbed up the steps absent mindedly, still lost in the past. She was to caught in her memories to notice that someone was charging at her, until it was too late.

"SOTA GET THE HELL OFF ME!" Kagome yelled. Her younger brother had successfully tackled her to the ground and was now sitting on top of her, grinning manically.

"Who's your friend? He has weird energy." Hiei nearly died of shock at Sota's innocent question.

'How the hell can this kid sense my aura?' Hiei telepathically asked Kagome.

'He's my younger brother. I taught him to sense demonic energy.' Kagome answered with a shrug.

'That's not the point! No human should be able to sense me, so how-' Hiei's rant was cut off as Kagome ignored him in favor of answering her brother.

"This is Hiei, he's a fire demon." Kagome said, ignoring the fire demons low growl.

Sota's eyes grew impossibly round as he looked at Hiei. "That's so cool!" It was quite clear who Sota's new hero was going to be.

Hiei arched an eyebrow but chose not to respond.

Kagome pushed her brother off and rolled to her feet, dusting the dirt off her clothes and sighing in exasperation. She made her way to the house, deliberately looking at her feet as they passed the goshinboku tree. Her mother appeared at the door way and smiled when her eyes landed on Hiei.

"Who is our guest Kagome?" she asked kindly.

"His name is Hiei. Hiei's a fire demon." Hiei nearly tripped as Sota answered his mother's question a little too thoroughly. The woman did not seem to mind that Hiei had just been identified by her son as a demon, and he figured that she simply figured Sota had been joking.

"It's nice to meet you Hiei." The woman said kindly.

Hiei nodded blankly, not quite sure how to respond, he was not used to people saying that it was nice to meet him and he had heard the polite greeting twice in one day. He was simply having a niceness overload. It was never nice to meet Hiei, the Jaganshi.

'Stupid humans.' Hiei thought for probably the millionth time that day.

The woman smiled at the slightly confused look on her face. "Would you kids like me to bring you some tea?" Kagomes mom asked cheerfully.

"Sure mom." Sota replied.

"Yeah mom, thanks." Kagome added.

The woman smiled and disappeared inside the house as Kagome and Sota sat on the front steps, and Hiei leaned against the house. She appeared at the door a few minutes later with three glasses of iced tea, handing the first one to Hiei.

He blinked in surprise before answering. "Hn…Thank you." Kagomes mom laughed, completely used to yukai behavior.

"He reminds me of Inuyasha" she said as she handed Kagome her drink. "except Inuyasha was never that polite." Kagome laughed at her moms comment and nodded her agreement.

Hiei just stared at mother and daughter in confusion, before shrugging and staring at the sky, disinterested.

"Grandpa is asleep, but we should probably try to keep it down if you don't want him to harass your friend." Kagome's mom added once she finally got control over her laughter.

"I wouldn't worry about that." Kagome said. "Grandpa wouldn't have any way of knowing Hiei's not human. The only reason why he could tell with Inuyasha was because the furry dog ears, the silver hair, and the yellow eyes kinda made it blatantly obvious. He doesn't know how to sense demonic energy… or any energy for that matter."

"What would..." Hiei began, not knowing quite how to phrase his question.

"My father is a little over zealous when it comes to attempting to banish demons. It took him a while to get used to Kagome's other friend, Inuyasha." Kagome's mother explained.

"If grandpa found out you were a demon he would probably chase you around the house sticking useless ofuda on you and muttering spells that don't work. He's completely senile." Sota continued.

Hiei wasn't quite sure what to make of that information. So all of these people knew demons existed, but only Kagome and her brother seemed to know how to identify demonic energy. On top of that Kagome's mother did not seem to have the slightest problem with her bringing home demons after school. In fact it sounded like she had brought home a dog demon named Inuyasha on previous occasions.

'These people are insane.' Hiei finally concluded, taking a sip of his tea.

Kagome's mom eventually went back inside to finish the ironing, leaving the three outside to themselves.

"Do you bring home every demon you meet?" Hiei asked.

Kagome laughed at Hiei's irritated tone of voice. "I didn't bring home that mole demon from this morning. Figured he wouldn't make good company." She said.

Hiei rolled his eyes. "You shouldn't bring strangers home, especially demons, it's dangerous."

"You followed me home remember?"

Hiei didn't exactly have an answer to that so he kept his mouth shut, preferring to cross his arms over his chest and look at the floor.

Kagome was used to Hiei's silent tactic by now, and smiled knowing she had won their little argument.

"Kagome, when are you going to teach me how to use spiritual powers?" Sota asked, giving Kagome his best puppy dog eyes.

"When you stop bugging me about it." Kagome replied with a laugh.

Hiei arched an eyebrow at the phrase "spiritual powers" but decided not to ask. Those kinds of powers were rare, and the boy was suggesting that he was capable of the same kind of power that his sister had.

'Perhaps it runs in the family.' Hiei thought. 'They are shrine keepers after all.' He shrugged and finished his tea, handing the glass to Kagome. "Thank you for your hospitality, but I should be leaving." He said, as he turned to go.

"Umm…yeah no problem." Kagome replied, slightly dumbfounded at hearing Hiei say a complete sentence, not to mention a polite sentence. She couldn't imagine Inuyasha saying the word "hospitality"

"Bye Hiei!" Sota shouted happily as Hiei used his demonic speed and darted away.


	8. Me and my self

6

Note to my readers: As far as I am able to understand 100 yen is about one American dollar, and one yen is about equal to the value of a penny. So by following this logic I'm pretty sure 40,000 yen is about equal to 400 dollar's, however I'm not completely sure. For the purpose of my story I'm just going to have to ask you to pretend like it is if you find out I'm wrong.

Chapter 7: Me and my self.

Youko felt something digging painfully into his ribs, but he wasn't sure what it was. He had been recently knocked unconscious, and he decided to do what he always did when he woke up not knowing what was going on: play dead until he was able to analyze the situation further. He kept his breathing even, and pretended to still be unconscious. He was lying next to something warm, and whatever it was, or rather whoever it was, was alive and breathing. The fox decided that thing digging into his side was probably a limb of some sort, most likely a knee. He figured it was probably unconscious judging by the rate of its breathing. It could have been playing dead just like him, but Youko doubted it since that was a trick few other people had the kind of self control to use. The ancient fox sniffed the air cautiously, and stiffened when he caught the sent of the shadow demon who had been attacking them.

'So she's still here?' Youko thought to himself. 'Kurama wake up, we've got problems on our hands.' Youko mentally rolled his eyes when he did not receive an answer from his human counterpart. 'Sleeping on the job again Suuichi? I guess I'm going to have to clean up this mess for you. I seem to be stuck doing that quite a lot lately.' Youko sighed.

Youko tensed as he sensed the shadow demon moving over to him. He waited until she was only a few feet from him and sprang to his feet with impossible speed, charging at her before she could react. He swiped at her with his claws, making gashes in her arm so deep that it hung useless at her side. Youko blinked in surprise at his bloody claws.

'That's weird… I didn't call my form yet.' He thought, his brain slightly muddled for the moment.

'Wait a minute… Shuiichi where the fuck are you!' Youko began growling menacingly with pure rage as his brain finally put two and two together.

"You bitch! You killed Shuiichi! You will learn what it means to cross Youko Kurama." Youko hissed with pure malice. His eyes held a level of hate and intensity that only a five hundred year old fox demon could manage.

The shadow demon held her wounded arm, and eyed the fox warily. "Look behind you fox." She said.

Youko glanced at where he had previously been in a heap unconscious. Kurama, was laying unceremoniously on the floor in what looked like a very uncomfortable position, however the human boy was very much alive despite a few inconsequential injuries. The ancient fox breathed a sigh of relief, and turned his attention back to the woman who was responsible for their separation.

"His survival was unexpected, that human must be far stronger than I had originally thought." She said offhandedly.

Youko growled in pure rage at her words, and lunged forward pinning the shadow demon against the wall by her throat. "If I desired my freedom I could have obtained it on my own, were I willing to take that boys life." Youko growled low, putting his face inches from the shadow demons. "However I was not willing to make that kind of sacrifice, so what right do you have to rip us apart? Especially if you knew Shuiichi would die!" he dug his claws into her neck till he drew blood, still growling with fury.

"I only follow orders; the boy was of no concern to me." The woman choked back. Instantly regretting her choice of words when she looked into Youko's eyes. They were burning red from his anger, as the angry fox hardly bothered to suppress his blood wrath.

"Who are you taking orders from then?" Youko hissed, baring his fangs.

"I can't answer that." The demon replied.

"Then you are of no use to me." Youko said dispassionately, squeezing the hand he had around her neck till his claws ripped through her throat. The woman's skin turned a dark gray color, and her face twisted until it almost resembled the face of a bird. Big leathery bat like wings ripped through her shirt from her shoulders, and spines grew out if her back along her spine. Once the shadow finished transforming into its true form it melted into shadow matter and sunk through the floor, disappearing completely. Youko finally forced himself to calm down and stopped growling. He headed into the kitchen and rinsed the blood off his hands before returning to the unconscious heap on the floor that was Kurama.

'Shuiichi.' Youko reminded himself. 'I'm going to have to start calling him Shuiichi now. After all Kuramas _my_ name.' He laughed quietly as he thought of how Shuiichi was likely to react to this new turn of events. He shook his head in amusement, finally able to relax knowing that Shuiichi was going to be ok. Youko was free at last, and his avatar had not had to pay the price. He scooped Shuiichi off the floor and began carrying him toward his room, pausing to look at himself in a mirror hanging on the wall in the hallway. He twitched one of his furry white fox ears and grinned like an idiot. He was free, and it was finally beginning to sink in. In place of the emerald green eyes, and red hair that he usually saw in the mirror was golden eyes, and silver hair that cascaded down his back past his waist. Youko eyed himself critically with growing excitement.

After a few minutes he tore himself away from the mirror and carried Shuiichi to his room, laying the boy down in his bed, checking him for serious injuries and pulling off his shoes before tucking him in. he stared down at the body he had been inhabiting for the last seventeen years or so in mild shock. He had never seen Shuiichi with his own eyes before, only in mirrors and photographs. He gently ran his claws through the boy's thick red hair with an odd fatherly expression on his face before he realized what he was doing and snatched his hand back. He finally gave a snort and turned, heading for their closet deciding he was not properly dressed for modern times. He removed the white tunic and pants he always wore and stuffed them in Shuiichi's laundry basket. The ancient fox sighed as he looked through the boys clothes; they were close to the same size and build, however Shuiichi did not have many pants that would work with a tail. The fox finally decided on a black pair of pants. He used a claw to make a slit down the back low enough for his tail to fit comfortably and then pulled the pants on. They didn't seem to want to stay that way, however.

Youko used one hand to hold his pants up, while pawing around in one of Shuiichi's desk drawers with the other.

'AHA!' Youko thought as he held up a safety pin victoriously. He used the safety pin to pin the back of his pants good and closed, and then retrieved a cream colored belt from Shuiichi's closet to hide the safety pin. He dug through Shuiichi's closet until he found a burgundy colored shirt that he liked. As he put it on he absently began to wonder how he was going to hide his tail. Shuiichi didn't own any trench coats, and nothing that wasn't longer than forty five inches or so from his waist would cover it. Finally Youko remembered a human girl from one of Shuiichi's classes used to wear a stuffed tail to school every day. He had found the girl unusual at the time; however he was glad for her strange antics. According to the girl she was not the only one who wore tails. Anime geeks and people called furrys also wore them. So Youko decided there would be no need to hide his tail so long as he wore a coat long enough to cover his butt so that no one would see where it was coming from.

Youko grabbed his favorite of Shuiichi's jackets and put it on, laughing slightly at the knowledge that it was also Shuiichi's favorite jacket. The boy would be less than pleased when he woke up and discovered that Youko was running free, and causing trouble, wearing his favorite black and gray, hooded, zipup wind breaker no less. He searched through Shuiichi's sock drawer until he managed to find a pair of matching white socks, and pulled them on. Finally dressed, Youko grabbed a pair of shoes and put them on, adjusting them till they were snug and in place, and then tied them. He headed for the door before he suddenly realized he was forgetting something important. He twitched his ears at his carelessness, and was about to go look for a hat before he realized Shuiichi didn't own one.

'Shu wears hats!' he thought, snapping his fingers victoriously. He went to his younger stepbrother's room and looked for a hat. Shu had many hats hanging on tacks by the door. Youko eyed the hats one by one finally deciding to risk being clichéd and going for the navy blue baseball cap with the black fox racing logo on the front. Youko put on the hat, covering his fox ears completely. He looked at himself in a mirror and smiled in satisfaction. No one would be able to tell he wasn't a normal human unless they examined his tail closely, and he could easily keep them from doing that. Foxes are able to move their tails at will, however they do not subconsciously show emotions with their tails the way dogs and cats do, there for Youko figured it would be easy to pretend his tail was fake. He was pleased with his appearance, and once he was satisfied that he looked as normal as possible he tore a piece of paper out of Shu's note book and wrote him a quick note:

_Shu,_

_I borrowed one of your hats. I hope you don't mind. I will return it once I am able to purchase one of my own. Thanks a lot._

_-fox_

Youko tacked the note to the wall where the hat had been hanging previously. He didn't think the boy would mind too much, he had several other hats and he did not wear the fox hat very often, he wasn't really into racing. He did wonder how the boy would react to the "fox" part of his note. He had not known the boy for very long but the old fox was becoming almost as attached to mini Shuiichi as his human counted part was. He laughed and headed into the living room, getting ready to leave. He passed the place where he had killed the shadow demon suddenly quite glad Shu was spending the night at a friend's house, and that Shiori had gone out for dinner with Youko and Shuiichi's step dad. There was a huge bloodstain on the wall, and Youko was quite sure that not a single one of his human family members would react well to the sight. The ancient fox cursed his stupidity as he went into the kitchen and found an old rag and soaked it in the sink, and returned to scrub the blood off the wall, relieved that not a single drop had reached the carpet. Once Youko was sure the living room was a safe sight for when his family returned he grabbed a spare key out of a box by the door and left, dropping the bloody rag in the big green trashcan that was out by the street, waiting for the garbage truck to come the next morning.

Youko stole the rubber band off the news paper lying in the driveway and used it to tie his hair back into a long silver braid. Once he was finished getting his hair under control the fox headed for town, eager to enjoy his new found freedom. He took a short cut down a few back alleys when he caught the scent of a few humans who seemed to be following him. Youko turned around and arched a silver eyebrow at the thugs.

"Hand over your cash or we'll cut you to pieces." One of the thugs, presumably the leader, called.

Youko's face remained carefully controlled, however he was laughing hysterically on the inside. "I'm afraid I do not have any money, please sir I don't want any trouble…" Youko lied, placing the most innocent and helpless expression he could manage on his face. The old fox was absolutely itching for trouble.

"He's lying man, I bet if you rough him up a bit he'll cough up the dough." One of the thugs said to the first.

"I bet your right." The first thug replied, pulling a switch blade out of his back pocket. Unfortunately the thug was too preoccupied to notice the evil gleam in the fox's eye.

The thug lunged at Youko gracelessly, taking s random swipe at the fox with the knife. Youko sidestepped the attack and grabbed the thug's wrist and squeezed until he was forced to drop the knife. He snatched his attacker and lifted him off the ground by the collar of his jacket, searching around till he found the man's wallet and dropping him in a heap on the ground.

"40,000 yen? Quite a stash you guys have acquired tonight. I'd say this would be sufficient compensation for my time, wouldn't you agree?" Youko said, his face completely emotionless and his voice even. He watched as the entire gang of thugs nodded vigorously, and barely managed to keep his stoic mask in place, wanting to laugh his head off like a mad man.

He removed the money and tossed the wallet back to its owner before stuffing his loot into his pocket and walking away. He waited till he was out of ear shot and then busted out into laughter. The fox was still laughing so hard that there were tears in his eyes when he finally reached the main road. He got several suspicious looks from passing pedestrians, who made a point to leave a good amount of distance between the fox and themselves. Youko took a deep breath and managed to stop his hysterical laughter, wondering what to do next.

Youko wandered aimlessly up and down random streets, watching the nightlife with avid interest. He passed several bars night clubs lit up with neon signs, and blasting loud music. There were many strange people walking around, however Youko seriously doubted any of them were half as strange as himself. After a while Youko decided he was hungry. He back tracked a ways, remembering seeing a quiet little restaurant that was still open a while back. He went inside and sat down at a table, waiting patiently for the waitress. After a few minutes she appeared out of the back room and handed him a menu.

"Nice tail." The waitress commented.

"Thanks." Youko replied.

"What's it made out of?" she asked.

"Fox fur." Youko answered, not liking the attention she was paying his tail.

"Can I pet it?" she asked.

"No." Youko said flatly.

"Why not?" She asked.

"Because it's attached to my butt." Youko answered.

"Oh." The waitress said. "Well… do you know what you want to order?"

"Yes, I'll have a slice of pepperoni pizza, and a coke."

The waitress scribbled his order down on her note pad and left the fox in peace. He sighed in relief once she finally disappeared into the back room. Youko pulled his braid over his shoulder and lounged back into a more comfortable position, absently wondering what time it was.

'Note to self: steal a watch from somebody.' He thought, completely disregarding the fact that he had just stolen 40,000 yen.


	9. Identity Crisis

A note about name confusion:

Umm I call human Kurama: Kurama in all the chapters that are about him because he thinks of himself as Kurama, however Youko has decided to start calling him Shuiichi now that they separated so I call him Shuiichi in all the other chapters. Because Kurama is Youko's last name. When Youko and Kurama were in the same body Youko would call him Kurama most of the time, but he would call him Shuuichi when he was eather mocking him or because he wanted Kurama to know he was being serious.

Chapter 8: Identity Crisis

Kurama woke up extremely sore and disorientated. He tentatively sniffed his surroundings, and immediately relaxed as he realized he was, in his own room and lying in his own bed. His fox nature could easily identify the smell of his own territory, and the familiarity of it put him at ease even in his half asleep state of confusion. He turned over onto his side and cracked an eye open to glance at his clock, growling slightly when his sore muscles did not want to obey. The room was quite dark, however with his night vision he could see no matter how dark it was with the exception of the darkness summoned by a shadow demon. That kind of darkness was artificial, created by the demons aura so it didn't exactly count. Kurama shook his head slightly, not wanting to think about shadow demons until he could at least get his bearings first. He squinted at the clock for a second.

'Four o' clock in the morning… damn how long have I been out?' Kurama counted the hours on his fingers. 'I got home around four thirty yesterday so…Almost half a day." He concluded, flopping back down on his bed and pulling the blankets over his head with an exasperated sigh. He was getting sick of being knocked unconscious; this made it twice in one day.

'So how the hell did we manage to get out of that one Youko?' Kurama asked, but he got no response.

"Youko wake up, we've been sleeping for almost twelve hours already." He mumbled. "Youko? Helloo? Wake up damn it!" Kurama groaned and sat up slightly. "Ugh, I don't have time for this…" he muttered irritation, deciding to use one of his meaner tricks to rouse the lazy old fox. He focused some of his spiritual energy, and mentally searched for the dark aura that was the fox, planning to give Youko a bit of a shock; something that the damn fox had done to Kurama on numerous occasions to get him out of bed. Kurama's eyes went wide with a sudden realization: the fox was gone. He was on his feet in seconds. He dashed across his room and flipped on the light, noticing for the first time that Youko's sent lingered in his room and Kurama had not transformed into the fox since Yusuke's tournament. Did that mean Youko was ok? Kurama focused on the scent and followed it into his closet. He blinked in surprise, wondering what the fox would be doing in his closet. Kurama shrugged slightly and opened his closet door sniffing for the source of Youko's scent. He was finally led to his laundry basket, he glanced down and soon found the source of the scent. Youko's weird white toga looking shirt and white pants were laying harmlessly in Kurama's laundry basket.

Kurama sighed in relief. "So where ever Youko is, he's ok." He glanced back down at the foxes clothes and laughed slightly. "And he's either naked, or he's wearing my clothes." He shook his head and sighed. "Stupid fox… I better go find him before he gets into trouble."

Kurama continued talking to himself as he hurriedly changed into a pair of blue jeans and a dark green sleeveless shirt. He dug around in his closet for his favorite black and gray wind breaker, cursing the ancient fox when he discovered it was missing. Finally deciding to just go without a jacket he pulled on a pair of socks and shoes, and quietly headed out the front door, careful not to wake his mom or his step dad.

Kurama stepped out onto the street and paused for a moment, trying to think of what to do next. He figured Youko would want to enjoy his new freedom by causing as much trouble as he possibly could manage. The old fox would constantly go into long tirades about how Yomi, his irresponsible second in command from the olden days, stupidly thought he had surpassed Youko Kurama the _master_ thief. Youko would rant about how he was going to show snot nosed little Yomi who the superior demon was. Kurama assumed it wasn't unfair to presume that Yomi's castle was not a bad place to start searching for the vain old fox. Kurama had a sinking suspicion that the blind demon would not appreciate Youko's company.

Kurama felt around for the place where Makai and the human world met and pulled himself through quickly, hoping to find Youko before he could get himself into any fights. The thought of Youko and Yomi fighting made Kurama uneasy. Those two were powerful enough to do plenty of damage, to each other as well as anything in a hundred mile radius. A fight like that would certainly attract the wrong kind of attention from both of the Rekai and Makai rulers. Youko was wanted in both worlds. Kurama started heading in the direction of Yomi's castle when he felt numerous demonic auras closing in on him. He paused and looked in the direction of the closest one, and after a moment a tall, skinny demon with shoulder length purple hair appeared out of the tree line.

"I found another one." He called over his shoulder. "You're not supposed to be here, we're going to have to erase your memory and then we'll take you back home." He said to Kurama.

Kurama blinked in surprise, he had never been stopped by the border patrol before. It took him a minute to remember he was human, the only reason he had never been stopped by them before was because of Youko's aura. Youko was gone now. "I have business here; I'm headed up to Yomi's castle. I'm looking for a friend of mine, and I think he might be headed in that direction." Kurama explained.

The demon looked at Kurama in mild surprise; he did not often run into humans that knew anything about demon world. "You can keep your memory then, however I'm still going to have to ask you to leave. Humans are not permitted in Makai, its not safe here."

"I can't leave until I find my friend! Look, is Hiei with you guys? I need to talk to him." Kurama glared at the demon stubbornly, hoping he would be able to talk his way out of this. He was not in the mood for a pointless fight.

"Hiei is not here." The demon replied, looking Kurama over suspiciously. "He took a day off, I think he is in the human world somewhere. I can't allow you to stay here, however I can assure you we are quite skilled at tracking humans and returning them to human world. We'll find your friend."

"My friend is not a human, and I don't think you would have any luck finding him even if your search team was a thousand men strong." Kurama growled in frustration.

The demon raised an eyebrow at Kurama. "You're either incredibly gutsy for a human or incredibly stupid. You do realize that lord Yomi is of a species of demon that eats humans don't you?"

Kurama was once again forced to remember that he was in fact human. He had never in his life thought of himself as a human. This new realization made him feel fragile, and he wasn't quite sure exactly what it meant. Now that he was no longer Youko's avatar how much would change? Kurama opened his mouth to respond, but he changed his mind and closed it. Yomi ate humans. Kurama had always known that, but the fact never fully registered in his mind.

Kurama finally sighed, trying to shake off all the shock and stress swimming around in his head and clouding his logical mind. He had never been alone before, not even in the confines of his own mind. He pushed aside all his doubts and worries, trying to look at his situation logically. As far as Kurama could tell his power had not dropped in the slightest with Youko missing. He was just as strong, and fast as he had ever been, and there was nothing that could ever take away his skill and experience. The only difference that Kurama could see was that he could not call on Youko's form anymore, and he had sworn to himself during Yusuke's tournament he would never use Youko's form ever again. As far as Kurama could tell nothing had changed.

"I am aware of Yomi's dietary habits, however I must find my friend." Kurama said firmly.

"You are an irritating little-" The demon paused and looked back over its shoulder as it sensed another demon approaching at high speeds.

Kurama sensed the demon as well. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and curiously watched for it to appear out of the tree line.

"Oi, Jubei! Got another one eh?" called a tall demon with wild red orange hair, and a single horn protruding out of his for head. He was wearing a white shirt, similar to the one that Youko always wore, as well as a pair of gray pants. The demon smiled broadly, revealing large pearly white canines, and pointy elf like ears poked out from behind his hair. He strode casually into the clearing; and his eyes finally landed on Kurama, lighting up in recognition.

"Kurama how long has it been since I saw you last? What have you been up to since the tournaments been over eh? Ol' Jin here's been doing border patrol, and boy you wouldn't believe some of the weirdoes you find on these patrol teams! Most of em' just guys like me who didn't do so well in the tournament." The wind master seemed more than a little excited to see Kurama.

"Hello Jin, you seem to be doing well." Kurama vaguely wondered how the wind master managed to talk so fast without having to take a breath.

"Oh yah I been put'en these skills of mine to work. These border patrols aint just here to keep humans outa demon world ya know. We keep all those crazy hotshots from invading human world too eh?" Jin continued chattering happily, and the demon that was harassing Kurama was getting more and more irritated.

"Jin do you know this human?" He asked.

"Of course ol' Jin knows him! This here is Youko Kurama!" Kurama flinched at being referred to by Youko's full name. "Kurama fought like mad in the dark world tournament, and he was Yomi's second in command when ol' Raizen died." Jin grinned wickedly when the other demon visibly paled at this new information.

"I-Im sorry sir, I had no idea…" the demon stuttered.

"It's not a problem, I assure you." Kurama said calmly.

The other demon nodded vigorously. "I umm… I should be going." The demon said as he made a quick exit.

"So Kurama, are you gonna tell me why your demon aura's off and run away eh?" Jin asked, slightly more serious.

Kurama wasn't quite sure how much he should tell Jin, but after a second he sighed and gave in. "That's a pretty accurate description of what happened actually." Kurama answered, continuing when Jin arched an orange eyebrow and offered him a big toothy grin. "Youko and I were separated somehow… He is free now and I need to find him before he manages to cause trouble."

"Ah, so the old fox is on the loose eh? Being cooped up like a fox in a hen house I'll bet he wants to stretch his claws. I'd like to come along, but I got work to do ya know. I'll tell the other patrols to stay off your tail though. Tell Yusuke that ol' Jin says hello." Jin said as he pulled the most comical expression he could manage.

"I'll do that." Kurama replied he said, turning to leave.

"See you another time fox boy!" Jin called after him.

Kurama nodded and disappeared into the trees, heading off towards Yomi's castle with all of his available speed. Several hours later Kurama decided he needed a break; the pace he had been keeping was difficult even for him. He was getting very close to his destination and so far he had not caught any trace of Youko's scent, it was making him uneasy. Kurama slowed to a walk and tried to get his breathing under control.

"My, my, my, what might have happened that you would run all the way here to see me?" The sound of Yomi's voce startled Kurama so badly he felt as if he had just jumped out of his skin. Kurama's emerald green eyes flashed dangerously, and he removed a rose from his hair and turned it into his favorite weapon with a flick of his wrist.

Yomi leaned against a tree with his arms crossed over his chest, with his long black hair graped over his shoulder. The demon lord had lost his sight many years ago, however his hearing was impossibly acute witch was evident by the fact that he had three pointed elf like ears on both sides of his head. He also had horns poking out of his thick mass of Jet black hair in an even single file line that went down to the beginning of his spine. Despite all of his unusual features, Yomi was quite attractive for a demon.

The blind lord smirked evilly, amused that he was able to startle the normally calm, collected Kurama. "You seem to be missing something boy… or should I say: some one. Where did my old mentor disappear to?" Yomi asked in his usual arrogant voice.

"I…" Kurama hesitated for a moment. "I'm not sure." He admitted.

"I see. And you assumed he would be coming to see me."

Kurama nodded, suddenly feeling like a child in the face of the powerful demon lord. The last time he met Yomi it was easy to ignore his intimidation tactics with Youko slinging insults at the blind demon from the safe confines of Kurama's mind. But now Kurama was already stressed out enough with his humanity slapping him in the face, and the old fox no where in sight, and now the blind lord looked a lot more intimidating than he did the last time they met.

Yomi closed unseeing eyes and sighed in disgust. "The fox is not here, I do not think he would be spending his first moments trying to antagonize me."

"Oh… I'm sorry to bother you." Kurama said, clearly hearing the irritation in Yomi's voice. He turned to leave.

"Wait. I am curious, how is it that a human avatar like your self is able to use demonic abilities even with the fox gone?" Yomi asked.

Kurama stopped and turned back to Yomi, thoroughly confused. "What?"

"Your rose whip." Yomi said flatly. Kurama's eyes lit up with sudden realization. "It is not a technique that can be performed by a human because it requires demonic energy to transform the rose." Yomi continued now that he was sure that he had the boys attention.

Kurama did not have an answer to this, so he gaped at Yomi wide eyed in disbelief.

"Also, a few minutes ago you were running at a speed no human should be capable of over a long distance if at all." He added.

"I'm not a demon." Kurama insisted.

Yomi snorted with amusement at that remark. "You are not a human either." He said bluntly.

Kurama continued staring at Yomi disbelievingly, shaking his head. Kurama had been able to do these things practically his entire life, and he couldn't imagine what life would be like with out his heightened senses, his speed, and strength, or his control over plants. "Then what am I?" he finally choked out.

Yomi seemed to think it over for a minute before he finally answered. "I can't pretend to have a definite answer to that; however my guess would be that having a powerful fox demon living inside you for your entire life has warped you. You have a small amount of demonic energy flowing in sync with your human energy. Much like Raizen's whelp."

"So I'm part demon then?" Kurama asked tentatively.

"As far as I can tell, yes. You are part fox." Yomi answered, finally starting to get board. "As to where you can find that old fox, I suggest you search the human world. Youko has always been overly attached to that place." He brushed a large section of his long jet black hair away from his shoulder and turned to leave. "I suggest you make sure to keep the fox out my affairs once you find him." Yomi called back.

Kurama watched Yomi disappear into the trees, trying to absorb everything he had just heard. He was not quite sure how to react to the new information, a few hours ago he was not sure what to make of his humanity and now he was being told he was not completely human. Kurama finally came to the conclusion that this was indeed the most fucked up day of his entire life. After a minute of trying to process all the new information that was assaulting his brain he decided to put his multiple identity crisis's on hold, and started heading back the way he came.

Kurama made it back to the human world a few hours later, with no idea where or how to start his search. He wandered around aimlessly hoping to catch sight of the fox. The chances of catching Youko's scent were slim, there were too many overpowering smells in the big crowded city. Kurama walked up and down streets for hours with out any luck, and finally Kurama gave up and went home. He stood in front of the front door, and fished around in his pocket for his keys. He unlocked the door and tossed his keys on a small desk by the front door. Kicking off his shoes, Kurama flopped down on the living room couch and fell asleep, exhausted.

Kurama awoke about an hour later to the sound of the phone ringing. He groaned and obediently dragged himself over to the kitchen and answered it.

"Your son or daughter has missed one or more of his of her classes today. If you have any questions or concerns please talk to Betty Myers in the attendance-" Kurama hung up the phone and stared at it for a second, slightly stunned by his new schools automated snitch recording. He shook his head at the audacity and headed into his room, and sat down on his bed.

"So you finally decide to show up." A voice said from his window.

"Hi Hiei." Kurama said, relieved by the fire demons appearance.

"Hn." Hiei replied.

"I have been here for an hour or so." Kurama said.

"Where have you been?" Hiei asked.

Kurama sighed and stretched out on his bed, wondering where to begin. "It's a long story."

"You can start by telling me why the fox's aura is gone." Hiei said.

Kurama crossed his arms behind his head and looked at the ceiling as if it had the answers to all his problems. Finally he gave up and told Hiei everything that had happened since he and Yusuke ran into the shadow demon the previous morning.

Hiei seemed to think about everything he had heard before finally responding. "I don't like this. Who would bother separating you and the fox in the first place? What's the point? You should remain on your guard I doubt this is over."

Kurama nodded, and sighed. Another item to add to his list of things to worry about. Hiei was looking at him curiously, as if he was seeing something he had missed before. "What?" Kurama asked.

"I had never thought of you as a human before." Hiei said simply.

"Me neither." Kurama admitted.

"Hn. Stop moping fox." Hiei climbed the rest of the way through the window into the house and headed into the hallway. Kurama followed, wondering what his friend was up to. Hiei made his way into the kitchen and raided the freezer. Kurama laughed for the first time in a while as the fire demon sat down at the kitchen table with a large bowl pilfered of vanilla ice cream and a spoon. Hiei shot Kurama his famous death glare that had been known to make flowers wilt, and inanimate objects spontaneously combust. Kurama scooped himself some ice cream and sat next to his friend, still laughing lightly.


End file.
